at it think it is. Most proverbs are very old, and take
us back, just as we saw that words formed from the names of animals
do, to the early days before the growth of large towns.

In those days life was simple, and people thought chiefly of simple
things. When they thought children or young persons were going to do
something foolish they gave them good advice, and tried to teach them
a little lesson from their own experience of what happened among the
common things around them.

A boy or a girl who was very enthusiastic about some new thing was
warned that "new brooms sweep clean." When several people were anxious
to help in doing one thing, they were pushed aside (just as they are
now) with the remark that "too many cooks spoil the broth." The people
who use this proverb now generally know very little about broth and
still less about cooking. They say it because it expresses a certain
truth in a striking way; but the first person who said it knew all
about cooks and kitchens, and spoke out of the fullness of her (it
must have been a woman) experience.

Again, a person who is discontented with the way in which he lives and
is anxious to change it is warned lest he jump "out of the frying-pan
into the fire." Again the wisdom comes from the kitchen. And we may
remark that these sayings are difficult to contradict.

But there are other proverbs which contain statements about birds and
animals and things connected with nature, and sometimes these seem
only half true to the people who think about them. We sometimes hear
it said of a person who is very quiet and does not speak much that
"still waters run deep." This is true in Nature. A little shallow
brook will babble along, while the surface of a deep pool will have
hardly a ripple on it. But a quiet person is not necessarily a person
of great character or lofty thoughts. Some people hardly speak at all,
because, as a matter of fact, they find nothing to say. They are
quiet, not because they are "deep," but because they are shallow.
Still, the proverb is not altogether foolish, for when people use it
about some one they generally mean that they think this particular
quiet person is one with so much going on in his or her mind that
there is no temptation to speak much. "Empty vessels make most sound"
is another of these proverbs which is literally true, but is not
always true when applied to people. A person who talks a great deal
with very little to say quite deserves